By Teri Figueroa, The San Diego Union-Tribune
The largest law enforcement agency in San Diego County is still shopping for body cameras, a year after a months-long pilot program to test different models turned up no clear winner.
The Sheriff’s Department plans to undergo a second pilot program starting in January or February to try different, more technologically advanced cameras, a senior department official said Tuesday.
Body cameras have emerged as an important tool in building public trust amid increased scrutiny of police shootings nationwide, fueled in part by bystander videos capturing the fatal shootings of African American suspects during encounters with police.
“There is an urgency,” Commander Dave Moss said of supplying cameras to deputies, “but we want to do it right.”
In the Sheriff’s Department, there have been four deputy-involved shootings since August, none of which were recorded. At least five other law enforcement agencies in the region, including the San Diego Police Department, already use the devices.
Earlier this year, the Sheriff’s Department evaluated three cameras from two vendors. That 90-day testing period, while “a very informative experience,” left the department wanting — each product offered great elements, but none had everything the deputies need, said Moss.
The second pilot program will be similar to the first one, which included equipping about 80 patrol deputies with cameras. The stations and sites taking part in that test were Rancho San Diego, Lakeside, Vista, coastal North County, rural East County and the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego, where the department provides security services.
The Sheriff’s Department has been talking about adding body cameras since March 2014. Moss, whose duties include overseeing the department’s patrol deputies, said the department remains committed to using such cameras.
“For most of the deputies in patrol, social media and cameras are a part of life,” Moss said. “You don't see much resistance (to wearing cameras). Everybody knows this is the world that we live in. It's what the public expects.”
He said the price tag for running another test is minimal, especially since the vendors provide the test cameras in hopes of winning the contract.
Selecting the right product entails consideration of three aspects: the software, the equipment, and management of the “enormous” amount of megabytes of footage, Moss said. Technical elements include how user-friendly the camera is for deputies, how easy it is to download footage, and where and how to store all of it.
Data storage is no small matter. The goal is to someday issue cameras to all of the department’s roughly 2,600 sworn deputies.
The department’s search for the right body-worn cameras comes as the nation has seen the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and increased scrutiny of police shootings — many more of which are captured on the cellphone cameras of bystanders.
The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties, said it supports the use of body cameras, calling them “an effective tool for deterring both officer and civilian misconduct.”
But the agency said in a statement to the Union Tribune on Wednesday that video from the cameras doesn’t always tell the full story.
“Body cameras can improve how police officers do their jobs, but they are only as effective as the policies that govern their use,” the ACLU said,
“They can help to build public trust, but they are not a panacea for systems in critical need of reform.”
Police agencies are sometimes reluctant to release footage, out of privacy concerns for officers and suspects involved in shootings.
In the San Diego Police Department, a body camera was rolling at some point when a shooter killed Officer Jonathan “J.D.” De Guzman in July in San Diego’s Southcrest neighborhood. That footage has not been publicly released.
In August, law enforcement agencies announced they’d signed on to a countywide protocol governing the release of videos following officer-involved shootings. The policy states that law enforcement agencies will release officer-involved shooting videos when possible, when it decides it would be appropriate to do so.
Policy caveats include not releasing such footage until the district attorney investigates the shooting, or if criminal charges are filed, as they were in the case of the man suspected of shooting Guzman.
In September, following the fatal shooting of Alfred Olango, a 38-year-old unarmed black man, El Cajon police released a still frame taken from cellphone footage. Critics blasted the single-frame release, which they said showed the police in a favorable light — Olango was in a shooting stance, holding what turned out to be a vape-smoking product — and did not offer context of what led to the shooting.
Three days after the shooting, the department released the whole cell phone video, which had come from a bystander. They also released surveillance footage from a nearby business.
Thus far in 2016, sheriff’s deputies have shot six people — three fatally — during confrontations throughout the region. All but one of those encounters occurred in North County. In just the last month, Encinitas deputies twice shot and injured fleeing suspects — one accused of carjacking a father and child, the accused other of robbery. In both instances, the suspects were armed, authorities said.
On Aug. 11, a documented gang member was fatally shot — he had 18 gunshot wounds, two considered deadly — by two deputies chasing him on foot after a car pursuit in Vista. His family has could not be reached for comment this week, but they have previously demanded an investigation in to the shooting.
One week later in Poway, deputies shot and killed a fleeing parolee who’d stolen a patrol car then carjacked an SUV. Earlier in August, deputies shot and killed a man who had holed up in Santee home and, from a second-story window, fired a cross-bow at them several times.
In July, deputies returned fire at reportedly suicidal man who shot at them following a five-hour standoff at his Rainbow home. The man was struck twice but survived.
©2016 The San Diego Union-Tribune Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
